After coming to notice in 2010’s Winter’s Bone as a girl forced to track down her deadbeat father, Lawrence also impressed in Silver Lining’s Playbook (2012) and American Hustle (2013).

Between those blockbusters, she also had roles in the X-Men and Hunger Games archive.

It is impressive that Lawrence has managed to walk the line between commercially successful franchises and critically impressive films.

But what’s more impressive is that Lawrence has been the standout performer in every role she takes on.

Serena sees Lawrence team up with Bradley Cooper for a third time.

The pair work wonderfully well together - as witnessed in Silver Linings Playbook, for which Lawrence won an Oscar and Cooper was nominated. They also both appeared in American Hustle. In Serena the pair play a newly married couple working to rebuild George Pemberton’s (Bradley Cooper) timber empire during the 1930s.

When the business savvy and confident wife Serena arrives at camp she ruffles a few feathers with other workers.

As the business recovers from the Great Depression, more drama follows the couple as they try to build a family.

As Serena, Lawrence is by far the standout star in Serena and she (predictably) works well Cooper who does a stoic job as the strapping timber worker who seems to drift between hero and anti-hero when the film dictates. Also putting notable performances are Rhys Ifans as the mysterious Galloway and Toby Jones as the sherriff looking into Pemberton’s business.

Director Susanne Bier hails from Denmark and won the best foreign language film at the 2010 Oscars for In a Better World.

With Serena she was forced into some awkward edits after planes disrupted some filming but fortunately only the very picky film viewers will notice it. I was far more caught up with the character transformations to worry about slack editing.

Serena has had very little marketing, but with the star power of Cooper and Lawrence – whose latest Hunger Games film was released last week – it is sure to have a steady stream of audiences who are interest in strong characters and an intriguing story.

Serena (M) is now showing at Bendigo Cinemas. See page 3 of the Bendigo Advertiser for session details.

Follow film reviewer Chris Pedler on Twitter @FilmNerdChris